I am an ex-Army combat medic. I served from 1985-1993 the last five years being inactive reserve. None of the schooling and hands on experience was recognized in the civilian world. I could only become an EMT with a little more school. I laughed and went back to my construction based job as I had performed prior to entering the Army. I do not fault the service by any means but it was my experience that medics are somewhat mislead as to the crossover of what is viable with your work performed while on active duty. Even back then under Reagan the Army was scalping money from those getting near retirement by penalizing for matters many years in the past, that was the reason I did not stay. If they were going to screw decent NCO’s who saw multiple live fire incidents why would I risk giving the bean counters who did nothing but see how best to hurt the soldiers as opposed to the big money contractors or ex-officers milking the system they used to be part of ? Same shit different arena for graft and working the system....anyone here who ever served active knows what I mean.
The various inputs (various comments)- suggest that things changed - probably for the better - as time went one.
You indicated you could not be an EMT (1980’s) without more school. Others remarked- and they mirrored my daughter’s training - in 2003/2004 - she trained as a Combat Medic (91W at that time, changed since then) - and a part of the Combat Medic course included taking the national EMT test. (She passed.) So the Army training got more significant over time, and the Army took the time to prove the training was valid by having the people take a nationally recognized test.
And the ol’ YMMV...I suspect some posters here with experience availed themselves of additional training, possible additional certification, etc. - and were able to stay in the medical field when they returned to civilian life. (Others might have been precluded from doing the same by having assignments not conducive to that also!)
My daughter was in the Army reserve - and in her civilian time - completed her BS Nursing, got commissioned as an Army Nurse ....trained and qualified as an ICU Nurse (civilian life), got her CCRN certification - and the Army accepted it. And, the Army tends to take an Army nurse with 3 or 4 years experience and THEN send them to train as an ICU nurse; the Army classified my daughter as an ICU nurse about 2 years earlier than what most Army nurses would be able to do if in the Army full-time.